The Creative Wheel of the Year

In my doctoral thesis I posit that the creative process corresponds to the 8 phases of the Wheel
of the Year pushing through the stages of initial inspiration, the 'creative block' through to
final manifestation, in which the Creation stands as a separate entity.

As for the gestation of an unborn baby, the beginning of the creative cycle requires the darkness.
Following a certain indecisiveness felt at the point of balance at
Mabon, ideas formed as seeds
during the earlier phases of Lammas in the previous cycle, start to gestate in the darkness at
Samhain (Halloween). It is a darkness of not-quite knowing
whether these ideas will, or need, come into form. By Yule , the darkest point has been reached and
the ambivalence is finally over. Ideas start to take embryonic form; initial sketches, swatches of fabric
are developed.

As the light gently returns, the ideas and experimentations quickly start to come together
(Imbolc),
blossom and set fruit at the part of the cycle recognised as
Spring (Easter). From now on there is
no stopping the desire of the Creation to come into full form
(Beltane) in its own right,
which occurs at the season of ripening, in the fullness of the Summer Solstice
(Litha) - when the
cycle starts again.